This invention relates to an apparatus and method for treatment of water.
This application is related to U.S. applications Ser. Nos. 08/655,744 filed May 31, 1996 and 08/762668 filed Dec. 9, 1996, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. These applications corresponds to PCT International Application No. PCT/CA97/00378 which was published on Dec. 11.sup.th, 1997 under publication No. WO 97/46305.
The above application discloses a method of treatment of water which includes: providing a housing having a first port and a second port; providing in the housing at least one separator element arranged within the housing including a water permeable membrane with a characteristic of preventing contaminants in the raw water from passing therethrough, a product water conducting layer arranged adjacent the water permeable layer for receiving water passing through the water permeable layer, and a product water carrier duct connected to the water conducting layer for receiving water therefrom; communicating the raw water from the water supply to the first port to pass over the membrane such that product water passes through the membrane leaving contaminants in the raw water to form a concentrated contaminated water stream and passing the stream to the second port; providing a product water outlet port in the housing connected to the carrier duct for receiving product water therefrom; extracting contaminants from the concentrated contaminant water stream to form a return stream; and returning at least some of the return stream to the housing at said one of the first and second ports to pass again over the element.
This arrangement has shown considerable commercial success. However improvements to the system are always necessary to enhance operation.